The interplay between regeneration and scavenging fluxes drives ocean iron cycling

Alessandro Tagliabue (), Andrew R. Bowie, Timothy DeVries, Michael J. Ellwood, William M. Landing, Angela Milne, Daniel C. Ohnemus, Benjamin S. Twining and Philip W. Boyd
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Alessandro Tagliabue: University of Liverpool
Andrew R. Bowie: University of Tasmania
Timothy DeVries: University of California Santa Barbara
Michael J. Ellwood: Australian National University
William M. Landing: Florida State University
Angela Milne: Florida State University
Daniel C. Ohnemus: Skidaway Institute of Oceanography
Benjamin S. Twining: Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Science
Philip W. Boyd: University of Tasmania

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Despite recent advances in observational data coverage, quantitative constraints on how different physical and biogeochemical processes shape dissolved iron distributions remain elusive, lowering confidence in future projections for iron-limited regions. Here we show that dissolved iron is cycled rapidly in Pacific mode and intermediate water and accumulates at a rate controlled by the strongly opposing fluxes of regeneration and scavenging. Combining new data sets within a watermass framework shows that the multidecadal dissolved iron accumulation is much lower than expected from a meta-analysis of iron regeneration fluxes. This mismatch can only be reconciled by invoking significant rates of iron removal to balance iron regeneration, which imply generation of authigenic particulate iron pools. Consequently, rapid internal cycling of iron, rather than its physical transport, is the main control on observed iron stocks within intermediate waters globally and upper ocean iron limitation will be strongly sensitive to subtle changes to the internal cycling balance.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12775-5

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